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| 'La Lumiere of Howth' is purchased |
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| Posted: 23/04/14 |
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Carmel Kavanagh
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Ken Kavanagh
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On April 23rd, we departed for St-Quai-Portrieux in North Brittany to take delivery of our "new" boat, a 10 year old Hunter Legend 36 which shall be renamed la Lumiere of Howth.
She is currently known as La Lumiere and originally comes from Ipswich but that will all change in the course of its re-registration with the Irish authorities, a matter which is being looked after by the super efficient Bronwyn O'Donnell of Boat Registration Services in Ireland.
Safari of Howth is sold!
It has been a long voyage since we first decided to refurbish and sell Safari of Howth 2 years ago. We were thrilled when she was sold to Tony Olin of Howth Yacht Club, then devastated to learn of the fire on board which caused many thousands of euro worth of damage. Then once again delighted when Tony sold her to a Turkish naval architect who is a close friend of the owner of the yard in Didim, Turkey, where Safari had been refurbished in 2012/13.
Over the next 2 years, they plan to bring Safari back to the pristine condition she was in before the fire which is great news as we had taken really good care of her during the 12 years she was in our ownership, as had Ian and Sheila Morrison, the original owners.
La Lumiere of Howth is purchased!
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La Lumiere of Howth
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Our new boat is vastly different from Safari but nevertheless wonderful. We were told by an Irish yacht agent that the interior of a Hunter Legend was like a caravan and he was right! It is a wonderfully modern, well-equipped yacht which is very comfortable for living aboard and for pottering around in fair weather conditions - exactly what we were looking for!
So far we are delighted with it and as the weather has been so awful since our arrival at St- Quai-Portrieux, we have had a great opportunity to experience the live-aboard comforts at first hand. We also used the time to provision her and buy some other essentials for the trip back to Ireland as most of our gear is in boxes in our lounge in Sutton, having been recently transported back from Spain!
When we came over to France to view La Lumiere in March, the weather during the 5 day visit was so awful that we were unable to take her out for a test sail. Therefore, with top marks in the pre-purchase survey, we decided to buy her without having sailed her!
Finally a weather-window for the maiden voyage!
The weather forecast looked favourable enough on Tuesday April 29th to take La Lumiere out for the first time. Having topped up the tanks, we headed out into the Bay of St Brieuc for a little potter. She handled so well that we decided to keep on going and head across the Channel to somewhere along the south coast of England. Team Kavanagh thrive on a good challenge!
The forecast was for light to variable winds from the north which wasn't perfect but we felt would be manageable. We were able to lay a course for Falmouth so off we headed into the night!
We had some fun with the in-mast Mainsail but after rolling it in and out a few times over the course of the journey, we feel we are well on our way towards mastering the technique in spite of some exciting moments which caused raised voices and some salty linguistic exchanges between skipper and crew!
Welcome back to sailing in the British Isles with big tides, strong currents, plenty of rain, drizzle, fog and cold!
As our trip was basically unplanned, we had to put up with some adverse tidal conditions. Our speed was reduced to 1.2- 1.7 knots for a 3 hour period while fighting the current off the Ile Brehat but apart from that and some busy traffic during what turned out to be a very cold night, both the weather and the boat behaved impeccably for most of the trip.
However, the final 3 hours before arriving into Falmouth were unpleasant. The rain came down along with a pretty dense fog. We were delighted and, indeed, immensely relieved that all the instruments - auto pilot, chart plotter, AIS and radar were in good working order and so we arrived safely into Falmouth harbour and a berth in Port Pendenis marina 27 hours after departing St-Quai-Portrieux.
Of course it wasn't the best plan to arrive in the marina at low water springs but our new 1.5m draught allowed us to access the allocated berth while other yachts had to circle round in miserable conditions waiting for the tide to rise! It was a nice moment!
Falmouth - Newyln - Milford Haven in the cold!
It took us 2 nights to recover from the shock of the cold crossing the English Channel. We hadn't sailed in such prolonged cold conditions since departing Howth in April 2006!
By Friday May 2nd, we had sufficiently recovered to round The Lizard bound for Newlyn which lay 35 miles away and from where we would position ourselves to get the tide right for rounding Lands End the following day.
With the help of a very pleasant Force 3-4 from the south and a strong current, we rounded The Lizard in perfect conditions and found ourselves tied up in Newyln, after a most pleasant sail, about an hour ahead of our projected ETA. We were very pleased with the way La Lumiere handled under sail.
Lands End and the Bristol Channel
The following day, conditions were favourable for a night crossing of the Bristol Channel which would take us into Milford Haven and a further major step nearer home.
We planned to arrive at The Longships by High Water Dover -1 which would ensure we had the current with us as we rounded Lands End. All went according to plan and we enjoyed some nice sunshine and flat calm conditions as we motor-sailed out into the Bristol Channel.
We discussed the possibility of heading straight for Howth which would involve a 2nd night at sea. Unfortunately the forecast at 19:00 put paid to that idea. The wind, although going to the south west which would be perfect, was set to increase to Force 6. As we have a general rule not to go out in a 6, especially in a new, much lighter boat, we erred on the side of caution and stuck with the plan to head for Milford Haven.
During the night, the wind did increase somewhat and we had some exciting moments when the autopilot was knocked off course by a sudden strong gust at 01:00 hrs. It refused to hold a course for about 20 alarming minutes and then suddenly settled back down again and behaved for the rest of the journey!
By the time we arrived off St Anne's Head at 08:00 the following morning, we were frozen and tired and relieved to be heading for the shelter of a marina! Any thought of spending 2 consecutive nights at sea even if the wind had suddenly become favourable was quickly banished!
Our timing for the Milford Haven Lock was perfect and we passed through during Free-Flow at 09:30 into the snug and very welcoming marina and here we will have to stay for at least 6 days until a favourable break in the weather will allow us to complete the final leg of our journey up to Howth, 120 miles further north.
We are living in hope that not only will the wind strength diminish by next weekend but that there will be a substantial rise in the air temperature before our next overnight at sea!
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